Trinity Marina

Today's Canals : Coventry, Ashby

We had arranged to arrive at Trinity Marina before 3 and after midday. 

The weather had been rather mixed but started very pleasantly.

As we prepared to set off, a mother duck brought her teenage brood on scrounge training. It seems very clear these days that boats are seen as potential sources of food and and hounded at every opportunity, with domineering mother in charge (absent father of course). This is very like behaviour in long past generations such as in the times of the Border Reivers.

We had about a mile to go to Marston Junction where we turned onto the Ashby, immediately passing through where the former stop lock once was. We guess that it was originally constructed to ensure that the Ashby Canal did not steal water from the Coventry. The top end of the canal was lost to mining subsidence and the whole of the currently navigable section is lock free. 

The bridges on this canal are wide because the intention was to continue beyond the coal fields at Moira and connect up with the river at Burton on Trent. That latter part was disproportionately expensive and was never attempted.

The moorings just before Bridge 3 were where we spent our first night on the canal on our first visit here in 2010.

Shortly after this we went under a railway bridge just as a passenger service was passing northwards, heading from Rugby, probably up the Trent valley line to Crewe. Another section re-built to a three track arrangement, one of the few in the UK. The scheme is more popular in other countries but perhaps the network complexity and traffic density make this means of increasing capacity hard to manage, especially where bidirectional working is adopted.

This canal seemed especially busy this morning - perhaps it just felt it because we met another boat head on twice at blind bridges (no, we did not collide as we spotted the problem in time to back off)

A very leafy section just after Bulkington Road Bridge on the outskirts of Nuneaton. On one side, with a steep bank down to the water, is a substantial 'mobile' home estate. Although it is laid out almost ignoring the canal, it appears to be well kept even though many of the units are by now quite mature.

This overflow weir shows that the water level is barely down from its maximum. This level extends from Coventry Basin to Atherstone and to the head of the Ashby Canal, a large volume of water should it run out! With the Oxford only a few inches higher at Hawkesbury right down to Hillmorton, that is a lot of almost lock free cruising. 

That, of course, is why we opted for this route, to allow Christine's damaged arm and side to recover itself and that is now well advanced.

We stopped on the VM just before the Watling Street A5 bridge to have lunch, with just about 20 minutes to Trinity Marina later on.

It was in good time that we pulled onto the diesel fuelling station just before the entrance to the marina. We had been given instructions to do this before going to the office to obtain directions to our mooring. In any event, we did want to fill up with fuel as we were now down to about half empty/full.

Very pleasant and cheerful staff greeted us, helped us fill up, put electricity on our pontoon supply and then showed us the facilities and how to navigate in to the berth. It was a rather twisting route from the marina entrance - all turns - but, despite a freshening breeze, we managed to turn and reverse into our allocated spot without too much difficulty. Tomorrow is car shuffle day.

6.6 Miles - 0 Locks